The Last Appetite » Cambodia

And they ask me why I go back.

Phil Lees — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:28:20 +0000

It is because I can see this. Sunset over the museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Although I still haven’t finished writing about Hong Kong, I’m actually back in Cambodia and have taken Phnomenon out of retirement. It’s just like wearing an old, fermented fish-smelling sneaker of which I could never dispose.

It is damn good to be back.

Update: How to get from Kep to Phu Quoc in a day

Phil Lees — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:40:03 +0000

Sunset at Kep

Reader Paul mentions that the ferry from Ha Tien to Phu Quoc is now running, with confirmation from Phearak. Getting between two of Indochina’s laziest beach destinations has just become all the more lazier.

The route can now be organised through Sok Lim Tours and is cheaper than the way that I got from Kep to Phu Quoc.

In other Cambodia-related news, I’ll be back there for a short trip soon, so I might just take Phnomenon out of the garage for a short spin.

Cambodian food reviewing: You’re doing it right.

Phil Lees — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:11:27 +0000

It turns out that with only three months left in 2008, Cambodian is not the new Thai. But what has changed over the year is the tone of reviewing. Reviewers are starting to understand how to eat Cambodian food.

This week the NY Times revisits two Cambodian restaurants in New York. The results are mixed, but at least they’re eating well:

No meal in Cambodia is complete without soup, or samlor, and the versions found here are the real deal, a pitched battle between sour and sweet, whether teeming with turmeric (samlor mchoo kroeurng, $14.95) or chunky with tomato and pineapple (samlor mchoo moen, $13.95).

Choul Chnam Thmei: Cambodian is the New Thai (5)
Maintaining the spider rage (15)
The found pepper of Cambodia (3)
Cambodian food (0)
Loc Lac Variation Spotting (3)

Maintaining the spider rage

Phil Lees — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:46:24 +0000

Ten miles out of town, my guide pulls up at a little shack on a winding roadside. This is real boondocks Cambodia. Little kids are staring at me like they’ve never seen a white man before, which they probably haven’t.

From “Man bites frog”

I miss the days when I used to rant about the Cambodian spider story of the week, where a Western journalist, parachuted into a strange land, proceeds to take the local food completely out of context. It gave me a regular windmill to tilt at. Now when I pitch articles about the possibility of Cambodian food being a varied and delicate cuisine to magazines, I’m sure that the grim thought lurking in the back of every editor’s mind is “They eat spiders, don’t they”. Sean Thomas’ recent article in The Independent is a tour-de-force of the culinary racism that does me out of business.

What can you say about the decidedly unlovely tarantulas of Skuon? Except that they aren’t very lovely. Certainly, they are much prized in Cambodia – anyone who goes to Skuon is expected to bring back a bag of big roasted spiders for the kids. When told that these rancid, sugared arachnids are less than popular in the West, Cambodians are shocked and surprised. They find western cheese-eating equally repugnant, of course.

None of that is true apart from the spiders being manky. My Cambodian friends are cheese freaks. He finishes off by eating a dried frog in Phnom Penh, which is something that Cambodians don’t treat as food. Dried frog is for medicinal purposes and occasionally, a rice wine additive. Complaining about the way it tastes is a little like eating a few spoonfuls of straight cloves, then writing them off as useless as a foodstuff.

This is not to say that you can’t write about a food that you don’t know as a local: a perfect example of covering Cambodia well is Robyn and Dave from EatingAsia’s recent posts from Cambodia – they might not speak Khmer, but they can put the food into the context that they know well: similarities with Vietnamese and Isaan food; familiar herbs in an unfamiliar dish; photos that set the food in the real environment. It is a reminder that food is about tradition and memories, even if those traditions are not your own.

Props to Maytel for passing on the article.

Support local (Khmer) hip hop

Phil Lees — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:07:39 +0000

Stuart Isett has followed up his superlative photographic work on Khmer street gangs with shots of Cambodian b-boy collective Tiny Toones, and this time there’s some fundraising going on. The parallel with the plot to Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo is too uncanny for me to not make a mention of this event.

If you’re in the Seattle area:

Tiny Toones: B Boy Benefit for Cambodia
April 26th 2008, 6pm ’til late
At the Greenwood Collective
8537 Greenwood Ave. NW Seattle WA

Featuring the work of: World b-boy champions Massive Monkees, Seattle photographer Charles Peterson, immigration activist Many Uch & photographer Stuart Isett.

$5 donation at the door/Photographs for sale/All proceeds benefit The Tiny Toones.

More info and online donation at The Greenwood Collective; Stuart Isett’s shots of Khmer b-boying on Flickr

Honda Chaly with Lemongrass

Phil Lees — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:41:51 +0000

Cambodia’s 50cc workhorse doing about as much work as it can. Spotted in downtown Kampot, Cambodia

Five links on ummm…Sunday

Phil Lees — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:22:59 +0000

Sorry…I made a quick trip to Sydney and forgot that I was meant to be posting this on Friday. Enjoy your long weekend, Australians.

We must hunt the elephants to save them – "Sustainable use" doesn’t make for great bumper stickers, but "I shoot ferals" does.
Food trends: Wet Market Diplomacy – Celebrity chef and Prime Minister of Thailand Samak Sundaravej hits Phnom Penh’s markets
Food trends: Kampuchea Fried Chicken – Kentucky Fried Chicken opens its greasy-handled doors in Cambodia (via DAS).
Pressure cooking with kimchi puree – Alex and Aki from Ideas in Food have begun exploring the earthbound limits of kimchi flavour. Needless to say,they’re tasty.
Food trends: Kimchi in SPAAAAACE! – “This will greatly help my mission,” Mr. Ko, who is training in Russia, said in a statement transmitted through the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. “When you’re working in spacelike conditions and aren’t feeling too well, you miss Korean food.”

Just a small in-joke for my Khmer speaking homies

Phil Lees — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:41:28 +0000

The falling price of the barang, Kota Bharu, Malaysia

Just guessing from the context, “barang” in bahasa Malaysia means something like “piece”.

The found pepper of Cambodia

Phil Lees — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:32:51 +0000

What does the visit of Chinese emissary Zhou Daguan to Angkor Wat in 1297, Khmer Rouge kidnappings and the recent landgrabbing of Okhna Ly Yong Phat in rural Sre Ambel, Cambodia have in common?

Cambodian pepper: which is how I tenuously link them all together in this month’s Chile Pepper magazine (US). With photos from Austin Bush it promises the best collaboration since Snoop Dogg recorded “Ain’t Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” with Dr Dre.

Choul Chnam Thmei: Cambodian is the New Thai

Phil Lees — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:39:39 +0000

While I’ve been saying for what seems like years that Sihanoukville is the new Luanda, in one of its final posts of the year, Epicurious has announced that for 2008, Cambodian food will supplant Thai food.

A triangulation between Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai cooking, Cambodian’s emphasis on noodle dishes, curries, stir fries and prahok, the strong-flavored fish paste, will grow in popularity. Cambodian food has stronger flavors than Vietnamese, slightly more subtle that Thai and is not as heavy as Chinese.

Also, cheers to everyone who donated to Menu For Hope. Over US$90,000 was raised. Prize draw to come.